This invention relates to containers or carafes for holding and dispensing hot or cold beverages, and more particularly to an indicator tab for indicating the nature of the contents of the carafe.
In restaurants, at buffets, and in meeting rooms, for example, it is common to provide refreshments for patrons, guests or participants. Such beverages can include coffee, regular and decaffeinated, hot water for tea, cold water and other popular drinks. To keep hot beverages hot, and cold beverages cold, vacuum bottle type carafes can be used. Often multiple carafes of the same style are used. Because such carafes are naturally opaque and it is desirable to keep the lids on to alleviate heat transfer to and from the atmosphere, the contents cannot readily be discerned prior to pouring the contents therefrom. To save time and avoid confusion as well as customer dissatisfaction, it is desirable to be able to discern prior to pouring whether a particular carafe contains regular or decaffeinated coffee, or hot or cold water, for example.
It is known to place a label or placard in front of the carafe designating its contents, but this does not avoid the problem of the carafe being removed from one location and returned to another, such that the labels or placards are no longer accurate. It is also known to provide carafes or handled pots having permanent indicia thereon, either in the form of words or color codes, to indicate the nature of the contents. For example, decaffeinated coffee containers may have an orange or other distinctively colored handle or lid. Such permanently marked containers or carafes lack flexibility, in that carafes so marked cannot be used for regular coffee or other beverages without causing confusion. The number of carafes dedicated to decaffeinated coffee may vary depending on the preferences of the people being served at a particular event.
It would be desirable to provide an indicator tab that can be connected to or removed from a carafe, in response to demand, so that a particular carafe can be used for different contents at different times. It would also be desirable to provide such an indicator tab that is capable of indicating more than one type of contents.
These and other desirable features are provided by the present invention.
The present invention, according to one aspect thereof, provides an indicator tab for a carafe of the type having a lever with a free end extending therefrom. The indicator tab includes a hollow cap having a top wall, a bottom wall, and a pair of side walls. The top and bottom walls are spaced apart and connected to the side walls. The side walls are spaced apart and connected to the top and bottom walls. The top wall, bottom wall and pair of side walls define at least one open end sized to receive the free end of the lever.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a reversible indicator tab is provided for a carafe of the type having a lever with a free end extending therefrom. The indicator tab includes a hollow cap having a top wall, a bottom wall, and a pair of side walls. The top and bottom walls are spaced apart and are connected to the side walls. The side walls are spaced apart and are connected to the top and bottom walls. The top wall, bottom wall and pair of side walls define at least one open end sized to receive the free end of the lever. The lever is receivable in at least two different orientations relative to the top wall. The top wall is readily visually distinguishable from the bottom wall.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a method of indicating the contents of a carafe of the type having a lever with a free end extending therefrom involves providing an indicator tab removably attachable to the lever in at least two different orientations. Each of the at least two orientations of the indicator tab is readily visually distinguishable from the other. The indicator tab is attached to the lever in a selected one of the at least two orientations representative of the contents of the carafe.
These and other aspects of the invention are described below in the description of the preferred embodiment made with reference to the drawings.